Obama needs dialogue with North Korea

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Newstimes

Published
1:00 am EST, Friday, December 12, 2008

As birds or airplanes fly, it is a short flight from Seoul, South Korea, to Pyongyang. On a recent trip to North Korea, I had to take an old Russian Tupolev aircraft from Shenyang, China, to get there. In the convoluted politics of North Korea, there is no easy way.

On the bus trip to our hotel in the capital, our group of 14 was given the first litany of prohibitions that would mark our stay, restricted to four nights for Americans.

There would be no photographs taken from the bus. Permission was needed to take photos outside the bus, and for talking to anyone in the marketplace, as it is a "severe crime" for citizens to talk with foreigners without approval.

Someone asked why and was told, "Because it is this way." So much for discourse.

My first thoughts were of our new president and his intention to dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. As much as I admire his willingness, the turn of mind that was revealed to us on this trip indicated that he will be rubbing up against a nation that governs its people by a subtle, yet powerful, psychology of reverence for its leader,

It will take tenacity and patience on
Barack Obama
's part, as the North Koreans have a bunker personality built around a cult leader.

Although Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, "The Great Leader," died in 1994, it is hard to tell where he leaves off and his son begins. A photo of either one must hang in every public room and, I am told, in every dwelling.

Grandiose monuments to both men are numerous, and photos of the son giving "immediate assistance" to this and that venture seem to be everywhere. He is made to appear omniscient.

When we were taken to Kim Il Sung's birthplace at Manyongdae, we were shown the "Rainbow Tree." Allegedly, on the day of his birth, a large rainbow came out of the sky and wrapped itself around the tree, thus attesting to his divinity.

In fact, the national motto, "Kim will always be with you," has a biblical ring.

When I asked one of our five guides and "minders" if I could buy a pin of the Great Leader or Dear Leader that everyone except pre-adolescents is required to wear on their left lapel, he looked at me, stunned, before asking, "Could you buy my heart?"

Such is the way of deification in North Korea.

One afternoon, we were taken to see the Pueblo, a U.S. spy ship captured by the North Koreans in 1968, causing an international incident that bought a new freeze to the Cold War.

Documents since released by the U.S. government have acknowledged that the Pueblo was in North Korean territorial waters several times before, as well as during its capture. The ship is now a trophy showpiece for them.

Every place we were taken to was used for propaganda purposes. The
Victorious Fatherland War Museum
has just about every U.S. tank captured during the Korean War; the International Friendship Exhibition Halls, near Mt. Myohyang, have every gift ever given to the dear leaders, including ones from Castro, Arafat, and Gorbachev; the Mass Games, a truly spectacular show involving 100,000 performers in exceptional displays of gymnastics and dancing, was studded with card shows extolling the virtues of the workers, as well as the slogans that unite them.

It was pointed out to us on the bus back to the hotel that Americans do not have enough unity to put on a spectacle like the Mass Games. The show was a good example, we were told, of the principles of the Juche Idea, which cements the body politic.

The Juche Idea is reified in a 170-meter tower of the same name that stands in the center of Pyongyang. A narrow obelisk, the iconic tower is topped by a red metallic flame.

The Juche Idea is basically an affirmation that man is the ruler of his own destiny. It is the idea that ensures unity by sticking all the people to the will of Kim Jong Il whose will is, by a simple logic, their will.

In practice, it downgrades the individual who matters little and is important only to the extent that he adds to the collective.

Eating, spitting and chewing gum are prohibited in the streets. Crime is considered a violation against the state. Mandatory morality and ethics classes also help to keep the crime rate very low.

In the final analysis, we saw only what they wanted us to see. What I saw, though, is a somewhat robotic people closed in on itself, a people dying from prescribed behaviors as well as repressive social and psychological expectations, the heart of which is the veneration of a leader who is very good at servicing his own needs rather than theirs.

Their dialogue lacks fluidity and spontaneity. The relationship to us was desperately controlling.

It is a rogue nation, though, with nuclear capacity and a growing capability to deliver weapons over great distances. They have broken promises in the past to dismantle their nuclear sites. As our new president enters office, they are promising anew to freeze this development.

The Bush administration has taken a first step towards rapprochement by removing North Korea from the list of terrorist nations.

It is now up to Barack Obama to begin the dialogue that could lead to peace, perhaps even to the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. On a plate full of difficult tasks, this will be one of the more formidable ones.